大象传媒

Gwen Reason
WW2 - My Memories
I was 11 years old - and about to start my last year of Junior School where I would be taking my 11 + exam which I never took because a few days before term began, Great Britain declared war on Germany. On Friday, 1st September 1939, I was, like most of the London school children, evacuated to the safety of the countryside, carrying not only our modest suitcases but our essential gas masks (in a cardboard box with a piece of string round our necks). After a long journey, which involved three buses, a tube train, a steam train and a coach ride, we eventually arrived at our destination Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, which was actually only about 30 miles from where we had started from in Tottenham. We all sat down in a school playground and waited for the local women who had volunteered to take us into their homes (for 7 shillings & 6 pence a week - 38p), to come and pick out the ones they thought looked the best behaved - I had a long wait.. Eventually a woman collected me and three others and took us to her house. I felt very miserable and I had been given a stamped postcard to send to my parents to tell them where I was and I told them I was not happy. They arrived the next afternoon and took me to stay, where a school friend had gone and everything was very nice. Mr. & Mrs. Moore were very nice and from Yorkshire (I didn鈥檛 know where that was) and worked as gardener and cook for a big house owned by a very wealthy sweet manufacturer. They had a cottage on the estate - so with their own daughter and my school friend, I had lots of private land to play hide and seek and climb trees.
I remember the declaration of War being announced on the radio at 11.00 am on Sunday, 3rd September 1939. My only knowledge of war was what my father and my uncles had talked about of life in the trenches during WW1 1914-18. Not having television in the 1930鈥檚 meant that I had never seen live pictures of what war was really like. The first six months of the war are often referred to as the 鈥榩honey war鈥� because nothing really happened . There were no air raids on London, so a lot of evacuated children started going home - I was one of them and went home for Christmas, never to return to Hoddesdon.
Because schools and their staff were still officially evacuated, local schools worked on a part-time basis - I think I went to school about 3 days a week for about 2 hours a day and the lessons were whatever teacher was available - or we just sat and read. Because many teachers were called up for military service, retired and married lady teachers were re-employed. I remember one very elderly teacher fell asleep in the class room and when the bell went, we all left the room very quietly so as not to wake him up.
In April/May 1940 - the war changed and Germany invaded and quickly overran Holland, Belgium and France.
The summer of 1940 was hot and sunny, I remember playing in the park with my friends - we鈥檇 take an old torn sheet, a bottle of water and some dry bread, make a tent and have a picnic.
However, the threat of invasion by the German Army was always with us - my mother kept very sharp carving knives, not only in the kitchen but also in the living room and her bedroom in case a German soldier entered and threatened her family. No church bells rang on Sunday - they would ring only if the invasion took place in order to warn everybody immediately. England was not well prepared for an invasion and one of the simple things to hamper their progress was the removal of all sign posts - so that they would get lost on route to London.

The invasion never came but I remember watching the dog fights of the Battle of Britain from Epping Uplands, whilst picking Blackberries, as RAF Station North Weald was very close. The man next door and two of my brother鈥檚 school friends were killed in the Battle of Britain.

When the Battle of Britain ended in September, it was too late for the good weather needed for the invasion, and so Germany decided to bomb London and break the spirit of the British people into submission. . During the blitz my family drove over to see if an aunt and uncle were all right but on the way home we got caught in an air raid and spent the night in a public air raid shelter at Finsbury Square. I remember sitting in this Shelter and knitting a navy blue cardigan.

I needed this cardigan for my new school uniform as in spite of not having taken the 11+ exam, I had passed for a grammar School and was very excited. Before the war Infant and Junior Schools did not wear school uniform - so the wearing of school uniform showed everyone that you were growing up. One other big difference to wartime schooling was the introduction of school dinners in order to make sure that all children got at least one meal everyday. Before the war morning school finished at 12 noon, we all went home for lunch and returned at 2.00 pm .

Local schools were now back on a full time basis. I had only been at my new school for about 4 weeks when the Blitz got very bad and a bomb dropped very close to our house. My father decided that my mother and I should be evacuated and took us to Reading. My brother was working so he stayed in London with my father. That Christmas, my mother and I had returned home to be with our family and for the first time for many months there was no air raid - it was Christmas night. On December 29th the German Luftwaffe made up for this with a major raid and set fire to the one square mile that is the City of London. The reflection of the flames in the night sky could be seen as far away as Birmingham (over 100 miles).
We returned to Reading after Christmas and our first billet was with three very elderly ladies who were very religious and on Sundays did not allow any activity apart from reading the Bible - not even cooking! We soon found another place to stay. I remember being at Reading the night German bombers bombed Coventry - my mother and I sat there and heard them droning overhead and wondered if they were on the way to London.

My school days at Reading were not easy as they did not have a place for me in the local Grammar School. I was sent to a London evacuated school in a church hail but because this school was not a Grammar School they tried to compensate by putting me into second year instead of first. When I returned to London just over a year later, I was put into the second year again. This meant that I did many second year subjects including French, twice and have never done first year. Maybe that鈥檚 why I don鈥檛 know my le from my la. It was on my first day at the evacuated London School that I was sat next to a girl named Maureen; she is now my oldest and dearest friend.

During the war everything was difficult to get. Food and clothing were rationed so that everyone would get a fair share of essentials. Some foods were rationed by direct quantity - Butter/Margarine 2ozs. (50g), per person per week, Tea, Sugar, Cheese Milk and Meat. Sausages were not rationed, they were not very good being made mostly of meat flavoured bread, and it was left to be butcher to distribute fairly among his regular customers. Other foods such as biscuits, jam, marmalade, cereals, rice, cake fruit, tinned foods, etc., were rationed on a 鈥榩oints鈥� system. You were allowed a number of points per month and you could use them to buy the foods you wanted. Chocolate and Cream Biscuits being twice as many points as plain ones. Eggs were rationed to one per person per week and this could be supplemented by the introduction of Dried Egg (on points) - a yellow powder which when mixed with water was equal to a beaten egg and could be used in cooking or to make scrambled egg. Sweets were also rationed but I can鈥檛 remember the quantity involved because my parents always gave me their ration! Fresh fruit and vegetables were never rationed and everyone was encouraged to dig up their garden and grow food. Public Information (Propaganda) was important, and to encourage people to grow carrots in their back gardens, they set up a radio interview with one of the RAF Night Fighter Aces, known as Cats-Eyes Cunningham. When asked why he could see so well in the dark, he explained that he was always eating carrots! As everyone wanted to see better in the Blackout - lots of people started growing them in their gardens. My father became a member of a local Pig Club where a group of people would obtain a suitable piece of local land (quite often a bomb site) and keep about six to ten pigs. Members all took turns to feed them with the vegetable waste from houses in the district and it was my job after school to ride my bike with a cart tied on the back, round the streets to collect potato peelings, cabbage leaves and pea shucks, etc. (No wonder that today I never eat Mange Tout, a vegetable not known in the 1940鈥檚). Every six months when the pigs had been fattened, they were collected for slaughter and the meat of one pig returned for the members - we all got a couple of extra pork chops.
One of the shortages was paper. The wood pulp needed to make it had to be shipped from Canada and with U-Boats (German submarines) very active in the Atlantic, shipping was dangerous and more urgently needed for food and munitions. Newspapers consisted of only one sheet folded in half to make four pages, As the extensive packaging we know to day is due to post-war discovery of plastic, many foods were sold 鈥榣oose鈥� (this included eggs) and were put into paper bags - of which there was a shortage. The ones you managed to obtain were carefully used time and time again. When buying half-a-pound of biscuits, etc., you handed your paper bag to the Grocer. Self-service shops were not known in the UK until after the war.
Clothing was rationed by a coupon system. The number of coupons being required varied with the article i.e. one for a pair of socks, twenty for a topcoat. I can not remember the exact numbers that were required or issued for the year, but it more or less meant that if you had a new coat, you didn鈥檛 get any new socks that year.. 鈥楳ake Do & Mend鈥� was the order of the day, and everything was darned, patched, let out or taken-in according to family requirements. Old worn out men鈥檚 trousers could be taken apart and a lady鈥檚 panel skirt could be cut from the unworn areas, the unworn back of a man鈥檚 shirt made an excellent pinafore, or children鈥檚 blouse. When new clothes were bought, they were controlled by Utility Regulations. This was style control using limited material - Skirts could only have one pleat, pocket flats were not allowed, in fact if you had pockets in a lady鈥檚 jacket, you could not have a pleat in your skirt, no turn ups to men鈥檚 trousers, coats were only half lined and many other restrictions.
Furniture could not be purchased, but was only available to the people who had lost their homes during an air raid, or had just got married and had been lucky enough to find a flat or a couple of rooms in someone鈥檚 house and needed to furnish their first homes. For these purchases a special voucher was issued.
There were ways of getting more than your ration and this often involved what was known as the 鈥楤lack Market鈥� where criminals would steal from transport and warehouses to sell for a large profit. The old Barter system was used, and many things were swopped between friends and neighbours. Everything was in short supply and the news of any delivery to the local shops soon spread by word of mouth. Anything from shoe laces to furniture polish - would result in spending hours in a queue. I remember at Reading queuing up with my mother for over two hours in order for us just to buy one lemon each. Maybe I remember this because it was raining!
Blackout restrictions were applied everyday during the whole six years of war. No light, even a small chink, was allowed to be seen from the outside. No streetlights were turned on, vehicle headlights were masked to reduce the glass area to a tiny slit, traffic lights were also masked to reveal a small + , and we used masked torches to see kerbs and obstacles when walking. Anyone remembering the War, will remember the hours and hours we spent queuing for torch batteries.

Petrol was not rationed during most part of the war as there was a total ban on private motoring.

One of the big memories of 1939-1945 must be listening to the radio, which gave us the up-to-date news of the war. It helped us to forget the war by listening to the music and laughing at the comedy shows. The main comedy show was ITMA - 鈥淚t鈥檚 That Man Again鈥�. The man was Tommy Handley who did sketches with various odd characters with funny voices.. Possibly not very exciting in today鈥檚 sense of comedy, but everyone (and I mean every possible person) would be listening when this show was broadcast. The catch phrases from Mrs. Mop鈥檚 鈥淐an I do you now Sir?鈥� to Colonel Chinstrap鈥檚 鈥淚 don鈥檛 mind if I do鈥� and TTFN (Tat-ta for now) (Tat-ta being the slang expression of the 30鈥檚 for good-bye) and too many others to list, became part of our daily conversations,
Because so many houses had been destroyed and no new homes were being built, there was a shortage of housing accommodation, Young married couples usually lived with their in-laws and homeless families moved in with relatives or friends. This overcrowding often led to very serious arguments.
During the war the Scout & Guide movement was overtaken by Junior Military Cadet Corps. Army Cadets, Air Force Cadets and Naval Cadets for the boys, and GTC (Girls Training Corps) which was then subdivided into the various military groups, for the girls. I was a member of the GTC - naval section, and very proud of my little round sailors hat that I wore with my school navy skirt and white blouse. I learned to tie knots, semaphore, the morse code, the meaning of ship鈥檚 navigation lights, how to march smartly up and down the school playground and how to salute properly.
By 1943 I was 15 years old and my father decided to send me to Commercial College. I left after a year and got a job at the 大象传媒..
My first day at work at the 大象传媒 was the 6th June 1944 a day which of course was D-Day - the Allied Forces landing in France.
I reported to the 大象传媒 at 9.00 am and was shown into a small room with a map over my desk. At 1.00 pm the news broke that Allied troops had landed in Normandy and suddenly the door burst open and 35 people from the department crowded into my this small room because the map above my desk was the only one in the department!
One of the things I remember about the war years is that most people were dressed in uniform. Army, Navy, Airforce, Police, Firemen, ARP, Nurses, Land Army. It was not often that you saw a man of military age who was wearing a civilian suit, even when on leave.
On 13th February 1945 I was seventeen and a half years old, and volunteered to join the Women鈥檚 Royal Naval Service (WRNS - known as Wrens). I had my medical and was accepted. I desperately wanted to join the Motor Transport Section or Boat Crew but unfortunately they would only accept me as a typist - the job from which I was trying to escape. The war was coming to an end and my parents, who did not approve, persuaded me to reject the offer.
We all knew that the end of the war was only days away, Russian troops were in Berlin and the German Army was surrendering on the western front. It was announced that the official day of peace would be declared a public holiday. It was 6th May, 1945 - VE Day - Victory in Europe. I spent the day with a friend in the West End and joined the singing and flag waving crowds and then went into Hyde Park for a picnic. In the evening we went to the local Dance Hall and then when I got home, my family was waiting for me with a glass of Champagne. My father had kept this bottle since 1939 - it was the first time I had ever tasted Champagne.
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Gwendolen Reason
1928 -2004 and submitted by her daughter

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